washboard problem on logosol m7

[offgridchris]

i hope anybody help me solve the problem which has started on my logosol m7 mill.

 

the mill worked fine to start with uing my 880 to cut small diameter soft wood. after a few months the boards were not as smooth as they were. so i changed the bar and chain. the problem went away.

 

now it seem no matter what chains or bar i use the washboard effect happens. the strange thing is that the same saw and chain on the alaskan mill produces a smooth finish. the logosol with a different saw stihl 064 produces a smooth board.

 

i have found a thread on aboriste site which discusses the problem with small timber and too much power with a 880?

 

tomorrow im going to try the 880 again now that ive set up the logosol as a smaller wood workers mill to see if that helps.

 

i think the answer was on a logosol forum post but they have suspended the forum.

 

any suggestions appreciated

 

chris

[agrimog]

i sometimes find the same problem with my m7, it seems to be that to much power causes the bar to vibrate if your not getting a high enough feedrate, i find that not using max rpm, ie carefull use of the trigger against the load( you can feel the cut on the feed handle) usually cures this, the other thing i have been trying is a chain with a 0 degree grind, this seems to work well on smaller softwood, give Ruth a ring at logosol, see if she has any more info on the subject

[slack ma girdle]

At a guess it is too much power generating vibration, equalls wash board effect.

[Rob D]

I was going to say chain but if the same set up produces a smooth board with an Alaskan.....

 

 

Maybe it's the revs of the 880 - it has the power to drive the chain through smaller logs at speed... in this case maybe going with a 3/8 chain or even a .325 chain which will give more teeth per second = smoother cut.

[agg221]

I would go with Rob D's suggestion, rather than backing off the trigger. The problem with backing off on the trigger is that the saw is not designed for this - it actually upsets the fuel air mix and makes it lean, which runs the risk of seizure, even though it doesn't overspeed. I know this sounds odd, but it is to do with the carb design sucking in a constant amount of air but varying the amount of fuel. A very expensive thing to find out the wrong way on a big saw.

 

Alec

[agrimog]

forgot to ask chris, what chain are you using, logosols own bars and stihl pmx chain produce a cut thats as near a finish cut as you can get with a csm and they only take a kerf of 1/4", so very little waste(325 pitch), the only other thing i have noticedis that your chain tension has to be spot on, and if your doing a lot of small stuff 10"-12" etc, they do tend to get slack between log changes.

[offgridchris]

thought i would post the answer to my problem which was accidentally solved today. the rope winder on the saw carriage broke today. i think because of the saw falling off the quadbike a while ago and i had to straighten it out, which must have weakened it. i milled a few boards with my other saw until that started to play up. so i tried the 880 again. this time by pushing the saw through the wood much like on the alaskan mill. the washboarding started again so i tried pushing harder to try and stop the vibration. this made it worse and when i tried a nice comfy pressure like i use when using the alaskan the washboard stopped . i just goes to show how much tension you can put on the little winder and may also be the reason why it broke. still at least i got to find out why my favorite saw was not cutting like it should.

[offgridchris]

thought i would update this thread to help any other poor soles who are having trouble with milling on an M7. now that i worked out the problem is with the bar and the amount of pressure placed on the saw i rebuilt the mill to its full size and mounted it on 4 posted knocked into the ground. the bar was dressed and chains filed.

 

all was good for 2 logs then the mill played up again the bar was trying to climb up out of the wood. frustrated i tried anothe chainsaw and the same again. aftter much searching on the net ( shame the logosol forum is no longer up a running as im sure this problem would have been listed) i found logosol canda's guide to setting up and it would seem that the one level i didnt take in to account was to align the bar with the guide rail. all along the bar has been angled so it wants to climb out of the wood. and over a few logs has lead to premature wear on the bar and probably the real reason for the wash board effect. planning to fix this on friday and i hope this puts and end to it.

 

nothing better than a good days millling

nothing worse that a bad days milling

[agrimog]

chris, have you not got the handbook that came with the M7, it covers setting the mill up in great detail, if you havent got one you can download it from logosol.co.uk. in the download section, or give Ruth at logosol a bell, and get her to send you one., I take it you've got the saw set up on two long wooden battens across the feet to stop it twisting

every time i move and resite mine I take 5 mins to check that all my alignments are still good, the joints can, and do move, when you transport it. pm me if you have any questions on fine tuning your mill to aleviate most of the problems, when mine is on song it will turn out boards that are so thin they are transparent and totaly true

[offgridchris]

thanks agrimog ive got the handbook and ive followed it to the letter. the last level i mentioned i dont think is covered in the handbook. i was wondering if it was because im using an ms880 or a 064. the mill is built around using a ms660. the mill was cutting well in between problems and for the money it is still a cracking mill. i just keep finding problems which im not sure are the bar or the mill or chain or probably me. just the same as the alaskan forum problems happen and its good to talk. do you knoe why there is no logosol forum anymore? like i said the alaskan one on here is great.

 

i will be in touch if i have no luck. im not slagging off the mill i just think problems should be aired to help others and find a solution. the design of the mill works because its been around a long time and has a great reputation for small scale milling or milling in the forest. im just not up to speed on it like i am on the alaskan, which ive been using of a while now.